Show DEV: I built an AI Agent inside VS Code

Hey everyone,

For the past few months, I’ve been building Kalai Agent, a VS Code extension designed to bring fully agentic AI directly into your editor, bypassing the need to constantly copy-paste code snippets into a browser tab.

It’s finally at a stable v2.1.5, and I’m looking for some brutal engineering feedback on the architecture, security flows, and UX.

The Architecture & Tech Stack

Instead of building a wrapper around a basic chat interface, I wanted something that could safely interact with the local workspace.

• Frontend: VS Code Webview API with batched streaming to prevent UI thread stuttering.
• LLM Engine: Proxied Moonshot/Kimi API.
• Backend: A lightweight Node service managing auth, workspace routing, and pay-as-you-go billing.
• Capabilities: File-system operations, local terminal command execution, Python/Node script running, and web search capabilities.

---

Check it out

If you want to take it for a spin, install it directly from the marketplace:
👉 Kalai Agent - Visual Studio Marketplace

If you run into bugs, have notes on the UI, or just think a specific feature is clunky, drop a comment below or email us on [e-mail]. I’m entirely open to critiques!